Renewing consumers may see premiums rise from 2013, but they could keep the coverage and provider networks that some said they liked, Colorado Insurance Commissioner Marguerite Salazar said.

"We were hoping people could access the marketplace a lot easier, so it wasn't something we pushed," Salazar said. "Once we started seeing the cancellations, we started talking with the plans."

Anthem, for one, has offered such early renewals to 60,000 people in Colorado who were told their policies wouldn't be offered in 2014. Customers who choose that option will not qualify for potential federal subsidies on the Connect for Health exchange. Nor will they have all the minimum benefits required in exchange policies, such as mental health or pediatric dental care.

Some estimates say about half of current individual policyholders, who make up about 8 percent of the insured in Colorado, will qualify for subsidies if they try.

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While commissioners studied what their new role is in the change, insurance companies lashed out at the choice to pass to them consumer anger over Obama-care. They said continuing out-of-date policies would disrupt their financial models, and they might have to raise health-plan charges for some in 2014 and 2015 to make up for losses.

Anthem, one of the largest sellers of individual policies in Colorado, deferred comments to its national trade association. America's Health Insurance Plans said, "Changing the rules after health plans have already met the requirements of the law could destabilize the market and result in higher premiums for consumers."

The great majority in Colorado are covered by employer-sponsored health care, Medicare, Medicaid or military insurance.

Of those, about 250,000 have received notices that their current policies won't be offered in 2014. Many cancellation letters cited new minimum benefits required by the 2010 Affordable Care Act now taking effect. Insurance companies in other years, though, have frequently canceled policies or sharply raised prices, without explanation.

Obama's decision allows those insurance companies to continue offering policies that don't meet the new requirements for one more year if consumers want to keep them. It doesn't require them to, though, and also does not guarantee what price the insurance companies will charge to keep the policy. Consumers may be shocked at a large price hike to keep their previous level of benefits and doctor network.

Salazar said many consumers may have missed the renewal offers amid complex letters from their insurance companies.

Insurance experts say sellers had already priced their 2014 plans to account for the minimum benefits and a new mix of consumers. If younger, healthier people choose to keep their current policies because they are cheap, while older, sicker people flock to the exchange policies, insurers will suffer losses greater than expected.

Some Colorado consumers are searching for new policies despite the president's dramatic, apologetic press conference.

Jane Kulik was upset at a cancellation notice from Kaiser last week, but finally got through to a Connect for Health employee who spent three hours helping her with an application on the exchange.

Kulik found it onerous to be required to first fill out a Medicaid application even though she didn't want Medicaid. Once through it, though, she received a federal subsidy that sharply lowers her cost from 2013, for better benefits.

She said she'll now pay $100 in premiums after the subsidy, compared with about $400 a month this year.

"I got a better deal," she said.

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